White House Briefing: McClellan Deflects Questions on Torture Exemption A Couple Dozen Times
It must be tough being an apologist for war criminals and their icky need to torture, especially now that they can no longer claim proprietorship of the so-called American mainstream, which they polluted and left for dead in their race to reach the right fringe of Hell.
So much easier to just emulate Jesus or Rumi or Gautama than to emulate power-crazed megalomaniacs — who could never see beyond their alcohol-emboldened egos.
America should be courageous enough to cough up its own hairballs when they threaten the flow of air. And yet our air is filled with hairballs and nutballs, all hyperventilating shrill emotions, as if amplitude will serve to persuade. But as George Bernard Shaw once observed, "Not intelligent, only opinionated." Yet some people guzzle opinion as if it were knowledge, thus real food. Only when they die of malnutrition might they realize that one has to eat something more substantial than chicken. Faux chicken.
And that is why anonyMoses Enterprises has created an antidote. Whenever you are in public, repeat aloud these words: "Rush is bigger than Jesus", which is literally true, although figuratively false.
Before long, the spell will wear off, dittoheads will be given back their own heads, sunshine days will return, and sweetness and light will dwell over all the Earth. Maybe.
EXCERPT FROM "MAN AND SUPERMAN"
"DON JUAN. Pooh! why should I be civil to them or to you? In this
Palace of Lies a truth or two will not hurt you. Your friends are
all the dullest dogs I know.
They are not beautiful: they are only decorated.
They are not clean: they are only shaved and starched.
They are not dignified: they are only fashionably dressed.
They are not educated they are only college passmen.
They are not religious: they are only pewrenters.
They are not moral: they are only conventional.
They are not virtuous: they are only cowardly.
They are not even vicious: they are only "frail."
They are not artistic: they are only lascivious.
They are not prosperous: they are only rich.
They are not loyal, they are only servile;
not dutiful, only sheepish;
not public spirited, only patriotic;
not courageous, only quarrelsome;
not determined, only obstinate;
not masterful, only domineering;
not self-controlled, only obtuse;
not self-respecting, only vain;
not kind, only sentimental;
not social, only gregarious;
not considerate, only polite;
not intelligent, only opinionated;
not progressive, only factious;
not imaginative, only superstitious;
not just, only vindictive;
not generous, only propitiatory;
not disciplined, only cowed;
and not truthful at all--liars every one
of them, to the very backbone of their souls."
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Article comments
1 - anonymust
What war crimes are you talking about? There haven't been any as far as I've seen, even with the press reporting only negative information.
2 - anonyMoses
Oh. Sorry. I know they are to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Hard to stop time though...
3 - Lee Richards
The original war crime of this administration was taking our nation's youth into harm's way and causing the deaths of thousands of people based on unreliable surmises, faulty intelligence and their own malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance in the offices we trusted them with.
4 - Bennett
Nice post! Thanks for that excerpt, it was worth a read or two.
Cheers!
5 - Bennett
On a side note re:war crimes, I heard our President talking today (painful that) about the bombing in Jordan. He said something like "These attacks are by terrorists that are willing to kill innocent civilians, and even bomb a wedding reception, in order to further their cause."
I thought "didn't we nail a wedding reception with a few smart bombs back in '03?"
Ah well, it was an accident, so that makes is a-okay...
6 - Dave Nalle
Bennett, I love the way you're willing to believe any lie the terrorists spew out, but nothing the administration says. That 'wedding reception' we bombed had a stockpile of artillery shells and enough automatic weapons for a small army and the corpses had been rearranged and redressed after death. It's pretty well documented.
Dave
7 - Bennett
Hey Dave, I just was remembering what went out over the news service. Since you were there and took some nifty pictures, why don't you pass 'em around?
Or at least provide a credible link to the "well documented" aspects of whatever you think I am referring to...
I think we nailed one in Afghanistan too, btw...
Them damn gatherings of people sure look like terrorists.
8 - Dave Nalle
There's a good summary of the suspect characteristics of the 'wedding' on this page. And I believe there ARE pictures. It was several years ago but I'll see if I can find them.
Dave
9 - Bennett
Really Dave, is that the best you can do?
This guy has an interesting blog, but he's hardly anyone with weight. He links to no major news source, provides nothing to back his hearsay. In fact, this is about as lame of a link as you could have been provided to shore up your case about a faked "wedding bombing".
WTF!?!?
You think I won't follow the links you toss out here on BC?
Dude, you have nothing to show, if this is your "evidence".
10 - Dave Nalle
We're talking something that happened more than a year ago. It's not exactly in the easy to access fresh news archives. But here's the CNN story, with the information on the hoaxed videotape which was taken at a wedding in another town and then broadcast on Al Jazeera with the claim that the wedding in the video was bombed.
Anyway, the story is on CNN. Is that an acceptable news source for you?
Dave
11 - anonyMoses
Lee -- Good examples! Sending Americans off to die so that their stock portfolios will rise is opprobrious and criminal. But to keep on sending them, even after we realize that the reasons given were all BS...well, I'm not sure what you call that. Stuck? Stupid? Evil?
Perhaps a tour of the Hague is in the cards for our dear pols...
12 - anonyMoses
Bennett - Thanks for the kind words. Shaw was spot on with his description of what could be called "Us and Them", except that the Floyd has already used it.
13 - anonyMoses
Dave Nalle -- Whether or not the specific incident took place over a cache of weapons or not, you have to admit we have killed thousands and thousands of civilians...way more than the sartorially-challenged, dark-skinned terrorists.
By some estimates, the number of dead Iraqi civilians at our hands is between 26,931 and 30,318. Of course these numbers will rise, since we still have no qualm with killing civilians.
Is this acceptable in your world view?
14 - Dave Nalle
Actually, you're wrong, anonyMoses. The estimate you give of dead civilians is from Iraqbodycount.com and if you go and look at their site, they acknowledge that their methodology is to count EVERY death in Iraq since the invasion as a casualty caused by the coalition, including every person killed by terrorists. And if you look closely at the numbers you will see that aside from the period of active warfare at the beginning of the occupation, almost none of the casualties they list are actually caused by direct coalition action.
The coalition forces go out of the way to avoid killing civilians, often at risk of their own lives. If we didn't care about civilians we probably would be far more successful in suppressing the terrorists and we would have taken a hell of a lot more casualties.
A realistic estimate of civilians killed by coalition forces is around 7-9 thousand, almost all of those during the invasion and only a tiny number in the last year and a half.
Dave
15 - Lee Richards
Thanks, Dave--that's all right then! What a relief!!
16 - Dave Nalle
Now let's not be sarcastic, Lee. Civilian casualties are still a bad thing, but it's awfully difficult to avoid them if you're going to invade a country. If you want to assign blame for them, why not put it on Saddam who used them as human shields for his palaces and major installation, thereby increasing the casualty count enormously?
Dave
17 - Lee Richards
That's why IF you're going to invade a country, you need to be damn sure of what you're doing and why. A Congressional declaration of war--as the Constitution requires--wouldn't be a bad idea, either, before the random killing starts.
18 - Dave Nalle
Good thing we had the equivalent of a Delcaration of War then, Lee.
Dave
19 - Lee Richards
Why don't we just have the "equivalent" of elections-so much faster and easier. And then we can have someone's idea of the "equivalent" of freedom of speech, religion, right to bear arms, etc. instead of unreasonably expecting the real thing. If the "equivalent" (which is a substitute) to the rule of law under the Constitution is becoming accepted here, I don't know that we have that much to teach Iraq about representative democracy.
20 - Dave Nalle
How is a bill authorizing the use of military force in Iraq inferior to a declaration of war?
Dave
21 - Lee Richards
One is mandated by the Constitution; the other isn't.
22 - Dave Nalle
So functionally exactly the same then.
Dave
23 - Lee Richards
Sure, in the same way that impeaching an official is functionally exactly the same as assassinating him.